Amarar is an African bedouin tribe of the Beja people inhabiting the mountainous country on the west side of the Red Sea from Suakin northwards towards Al-Qusayr.
The Battle of Suakin (also known as the Battle of Gemaizah) occurred on 20 December 1888 when Francis Grenfell defeated the Mahdi forces near Suakin a chief port of Sudan.
Accordingly, a second expedition departed from Suakin on 10 March in order to defeat the Mahdists definitively.
Khartoum was founded at this time, and in the following years the rule of the Egyptians was greatly extended and control of the Red Sea ports of Suakin and Massawa obtained.
Three more provinces in East Africa were established: Massawa, Habesh (Abyssia) and Sawakin (Suakin).
Most of the action over the next six years takes place in the eastern Sudan, where the British and Egyptians held Suakin.
He took part in the action at Fort Gamaizah (near Suakin), and served with the Nile Frontier Force in 1889 winning the Order of Medjidie Third Class.
Suakin |
Having been disappointed in his hope of seeing active service in the Egyptian Campaign of 1882, he participated in the Suakin campaign of 1884 without official leave, and was wounded at El Teb when acting as an intelligence officer under General Valentine Baker.
His uncle Ernest Gambier-Parry was a major in the army sent to Egypt to avenge the death of General Gordon, and wrote a book (Suakin, 1885) about his experiences.
When Muhammad Ahmad proclaimed himself the Mahdi, and incited Sudan into a long and violent revolt, his followers successfully either drove the Egyptian garrisons out of Sudan, or isolated them at Suakin and at various posts in the south.